The present invention relates to novel polydextrose-containing materials and to methods for preparing the same. In particular, the invention relates to readily dispersable polydextrose-containing medicaments or cosmetics.
In commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,855,326 and 4,873,085, various active agents having pharmacological and/or cosmetic properties were combined with readily water-soluble melt-spinnable materials such as sugars or cellulosic substances. The active agents spun with these materials demonstrate enhanced solubility.
Commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,011,532 and 5,096,492 contain examples of oleaginous substances that are mixed with sugar and melt-spun. The spun products disperse readily in water, forming colloidal or pseudo-colloidal dispersions. The '532 patent explains how oleaginous substances such as vegetable oil, mineral oil, baby oil, margarine, lanolin, cocoa butter and the like, which characteristically have little or no affinity for water, can have this characteristic altered by mixing the oleaginous substance with sugar and melt-spinning the mixture in a cotton candy spinning machine or equivalent. The disclosure of the '532 patent is incorporated herein by reference.
Other disclosures dealing with spinning substances with one or more sugars will be found in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,873,085; 4,997,856; 5,028,632 and 5,034,421. Generally, each of these disclosures are directed to melt-spinning sugar by introducing sugar and various ingredients into a cotton candy spinning machine. Such equipment is normally operated at a temperature of around 200.degree. C. and at speeds of about 3,500 r.p.m. Melt-spinning in such equipment relies upon certain characteristics of sucrose, such as high crystallinity and high physical and chemical lability. The spun products disclosed in these patents are described as taking the form of a floss or mass of spun fibers.
Although the products discussed above are rapidly dispersable and even compactable, it has been desired to provide spun products in alternative forms which would facilitate handling of the spun product. In particular, it has been desired to provide the spun products in a form which is easier to work with, pour, and mix with other solids, etc. Such alternatives would provide higher efficiency for subsequent processing when the matrix is included in various goods or finished products.
Some efforts to alter the morphology of melt-spun products have centered around finding alternatives for sucrose. Attempts to spin non-sucrose or low-sucrose-containing saccharides have been, for the most part, unsuccessful. Feedstock having little or no sucrose as a carrier component were found to char during melt-spinning and were generally non-processable, especially on a commercial scale. It has been the belief of the artisan that sucrose is an important ingredient in feedstocks for melt-spinning processes.
Polydextrose is a non-sucrose, essentially non-nutritive carbohydrate substitute. Polydextrose can be prepared through polymerization of glucose in the presence of polycarboxylic acid catalysts and polyols. Generally, polydextrose is known to be commercially available in three forms: polydextrose A and polydextrose K, which are powdered solids, and polydextrose N supplied as a 70% solution. Each of these products also contain some low molecular weight components, such as glucose, sorbitol and certain oligomers.
In the past, most of the interest in polydextrose has centered around its use in various edible compositions. For example, polydextrose has stimulated interest in the food arts as a low-calorie bulking agent or as a part of many low-calorie or light foods since it has only about one-quarter of the calories of sucrose. Non-food related uses for the material have largely been ignored.
Unfortunately, the ability to disperse polydextrose and use it in different products has been limited by certain physical and chemical phenomena. Unlike most saccharide products, it is relatively unreactive and physically resistive to mixing and dispersing. While artisans have been able to process sugar to enhance its utility in food and other products, polydextrose heretofore did not appear to be as versatile.
The technical and processing difficulties alluded to above have therefore hampered the artisan's use of polydextrose and polydextrose-containing materials. If these difficulties could be overcome, especially in the areas of dipersability and solubility, the artisan would gain a useful non-sucrose alternative.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide polydextrose-containing products having improved dispersability in liquids.
Other and further objects of the present invention are set forth in the following description, and its scope will be pointed out in the appended claims.